Big Four accounting firms like KPMG and Deloitte will become an important part of the decentralized finance — or DeFi — in the coming decade, according to Berlin-based non-profit think tank dGen.
In its report titled “Decentralised Finance: Usecases & Risks for Mass Adoption,” dGen focuses on what it calls “the hottest topic in the blockchain industry today.”
According to dGen, although DeFi is still in its infancy, it “could leapfrog the current FinTech industry, providing a new structure of financial services” in the years to come.
The researchers back this thought up by making a number of bold predictions regarding DeFi.
In their view, it will become a trillion dollar industry and “provide income for thousands of gamers, streamers, and influencers” by 2030. It will also be adopted by European financial institutions who will switch to offering “DeFi-enabled savings and pension accounts.”
Big Four to enter DeFi?
The think tank further argues that the Big Four firms, namely KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PwC “will be a crucial part of the DeFi ecosystem in the years to come.”
Elaborating on this, dGen co-founder Jake Stott told Cointelegraph, “As more traditional financial institutions are exposed to the benefits of DeFi and its complexity there will be a greater need for professional services firms to cater to and audit these activities. Big Four firms can specialise in DeFi audits and compliance to capture greater market share.”
Stott is highly enthusiastic about DeFi at large, as he added that “we may start to see a lot of interest from normal people who are sick of earning zero percent interest on their bank savings."
When asked about the sector’s main weaknesses, Stott told Cointelegraph:
“The biggest weaknesses for DeFi right now are the risk of losing all of your funds and complexity involved in interacting with much of the DeFi ecosystem. Both of these are being actively addressed and may no longer be as significant 12 months from now.”
Other reports on the booming sector
According to ConsenSys’ second quarter DeFi report released earlier this week, the sector’s growth has been propelled by the increasing popularity of yield farming and Bitcoin (BTC) tokenization protocols.
Notedly, the report also highlighted major security incidents targeting some DeFi platforms like Uniswap, Lendf.me, and Bancor, who have seen $26 million being stolen from them collectively so far.